1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image distribution system, a method and a program therefor, and more particularly to an image distribution system in a virtual system formed on a computer network, a method and a program therefor.
2. Related Background Art
In organizations such as business firms, associations or public bodies, it is customary that an office space is secured by possession or by renting as the work space for employed laborers (hereinafter called workers) to be engaged in office works, marketing works or technical works not requiring a large facility, and the workers arrive and gather at the office space by public transportation or by private cars by a work start time and execute group work within the predetermined work time. Such office space is equipped with telephones, copying machines, facsimiles, computers, computer networks etc. for improving the efficiency of various works.
In the history of human beings, the habit of such group work is a relatively new phenomenon adopted for the efficient operation of the factories since the industrial revolution. In recent years, the drawbacks resulting from such group work such as conjection in commuting and air pollution caused by the increase of the private cars have become apparent, while the group work is becoming not essential for the organizations and for their workers as a result of availability of the communication infrastructure such as internet and of various communication technologies. Therefore the attention is being directed to the concept of dispersed work in which the workers belonging to an organization executes their jobs at their homes or in arbitrary locations close thereto whereby the objective of the organization is attained as a whole.
In general, for realizing the dispersed work in an organization such as a business firm, there is adopted a method of utilizing a room of the home of each worker as a working space (called home office), connecting plural home offices in distant locations by a communication channel and utilizing home-use communication terminals such as a telephone set and a facsimile apparatus and a communication application system. In this manner there is secured the communicating means among the workers. The communication channel can be composed, for example, of a public telephone network, an ISDN network or an internet exclusive line, and the communication application system can be composed of an e-mail system, a www (worldwide web) or a video conference system.
The worker may also utilize a satellite office or a telecottage prepared by the organization or the local community to which the worker belongs or, in case of a sales job or a maintenance job, the seat of a private car or a public transportation vehicle, to be used for visiting the customer, as a temporary office (called mobile office).
For the purpose of smoothly realizing such dispersed work, there have been proposed various system. FIG. 18 shows a client image in a multi-spot video conference provided by White Pine Software Inc., U.S. This system realizes, on personal computers, a real-time conference utilizing images among workers in distant locations.
The mutual exchange of the images among the dispersed workers through such system allows to realize so-called interactive awareness system thereby avoiding isolated or secluded feeling of the workers and stimulating active communication among the workers.
However, since the purpose of use is different in case the video conference system is utilized as a main communication tool and in case it is utilized as an interactive awareness system, the transmitted image results in various limitations in relation to the communication band and the convenience of use if the conventional system is applied for such purpose. More specifically, the user is required to adjust the camera setting and the compression parameter according to the function to be utilized.